(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
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George Colman De Kay was born on March 5, 1802 in or near New York City, New York, United States. He was the second son of George and Catherine (Colman) De Kay, and younger brother of James E. De Kay. During George’s infancy his father died.
The lad was placed for a time in a private school in Connecticut, but eluded his guardian and shipped before the mast on a merchantman.
At twenty he was captain of a ship and at home in many foreign ports. Arriving at Buenos Aires in 1826, while Brazil was blockading the port as an incident to the dispute with the Argentine Republic over the province that later became the Republic of Uruguay, he offered his services to the Argentine navy, and was intrusted by Admiral Brown with the command of the Brandsen, a brig of eight guns with a motley crew of Americans, Irish, Scotch, and a few South Americans.
Having run the blockade of the Rio de la Plata, he engaged two Brazilian men-of-war and captured one of them.
In the following summer (1827) he took three Brazilian ships and fought the Cacique (18 guns) off Pernambuco, boarding her and accepting surrender from Capt. Manson, in spite of the fact that his crew was outnumbered three to one by that of the Cacique.
His success was attributed to his skill in maneuvering his ship rather than to any superiority in gunnery. The Brazilian fleet, with which he had to contend, was manned and commanded, for the most part, by Englishmen.
Taking command of the Cacique and hoisting the Argentine colors, De Kay sailed past Rio de Janeiro, northward through the Carribbean Sea, and as far up the North American coast as New York.
He had been made a captain and after his victories was made a lieutenant-colonel—a rank that nearly corresponded with the then existing naval grade of commodore in the United States navy. From the date of this promotion he was known in the United States as Commodore De Kay.
In the following year while returning to Buenos Aires, the Brandzen was surrounded and overpowered in the Rio de la Plata by Brazilian ships. De Kay scuttled her and, taking off the crew, proceeded by land to Buenos Aires. Peace was declared and, shortly, relieved of active duty, he returned to the United States, promising to rejoin Argentine service whenever he should be recalled.
After his return to New York he was associated, as he had been earlier, with Henry Eckford, the ship-builder.
In 1831 he sailed a corvette, or sloop-of-war, built by Eckford for the Sultan of Turkey, to Constantinople. With him on the voyage went his brother, James De Kay, and Eckford himself. While in Turkey during the following year Eckford died and De Kay returned to America with the body.
His placid life as a family man in the Palisades region of New Jersey for several years was in sharp contrast with the adventurings of his youth. From this peaceful existence he was summoned during the Irish famine of 1847 to take leadership in an international enterprise of succor and good will which was a forerunner of the great Red Cross and other emergency relief efforts of the present century.
He prevailed upon Congress to grant the use of the federal war-ship Macedonian for transporting goods from New York to Ireland.
Although the United States was engaged in war with Mexico at the time, the appeal in behalf of the Irish famine-sufferers met with a quick response. A cargo of corn meal, Indian meal, rice, beans, and clothing, valued at over $60, 000, was promptly secured and the cost of the expedition (amounting to $15, 000) was voted by public meetings.
De Kay took the responsibility of sailing the ship to Cork. This novel use of a war vessel on an errand of mercy caught the British imagination for the moment, but the well-intentioned enterprise suffered disastrously from lack of organization. The pledges made in public meetings remained unfulfilled. De Kay was compelled to advance from his own pocket the principal cost of the voyage and to look to Congress for reimbursement. He died suddenly at Washington, where he had just purchased a house, survived by his wife and seven children.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
De Kay's marriage in 1833 to Janet Halleck Drake, a grand-daughter of Henry Eckford, and the only child of the poet, Joseph Rodman Drake, continued and cemented his early alliance with the ship-builder’s family and the group of writers with whom he had been associated from boyhood days.
